Thursday, September 8, 2011

Wine crate shelf, complete.

Remember a couple days ago when I mentioned wanting to make a wine crate shelf for my bathroom (full post here)? Well, it's finished! And it's cute! And I can't wait to figure out what's actually going to go in it!

Can you tell how excited I am about it by my excessive use of exclamation marks?!?!

To recap for everyone, my rental has a very ugly bathroom with a very ugly vanity. It's large. It's boring. It's absolutely fugly.

First things first, I needed to balance out that bulk. And what better way to balance bulk than by enclosed shelving? Enter the $5 wine crate from The Wine Merchant.

NOTE: Excuse the crappy side angle photo - I remembered to photograph the progress only after I started to stain. D'oh!

I stained the crate with some $2 Ace-brand wood stain in Early American. It was my first time using the stain and I have to say I was rather pleased with it. The color went on really smoothly and the smell wasn't too too bad. I finished it off with some high-gloss polyurethane I had left over from another project and the up on the wall it went.

Here it is styled a bit from random chotchkies I had lying around my house. I'm not completely sold on the accessories but am definitely digging the all-white mix of modern and vintage pieces to really make a statement. Emily Henderson made a comment on her blog the other day about choosing to go eclectic by color or by style so as not to overdo it. I am definitely taking the direction to heart and plan to attempt eclectic by style in this here display.

TIP: Drill holes in the wine crate before attempting to mount it to the wall. I did this and completed the very technical exercise of balancing a level on top of the wine crate, pencilling in the holes to the wall and then looking through the little hole to match everything up. Soooo helpful.

Knowing me, I may add just a splash of color (something bright) based on what I find at the thrift stores but I want to keep it simple enough so it doesn't look like just a bunch of crap shoved up above the john. Right now I'm on the hunt for more white washcloths, a textured, ornate candy dish to use as a pot and a larger fern to go inside. I might add a metal basket to hang right underneath the shelf to hold some reading material for.. you know... when you need reading material.

As far as the rest of the bathroom? I have some ideas but none that seem to be tying everything together just yet. I'm thinking I need to keep down the textured-yet-simplistic look to balance out the green and pink tile.